Voters robbed in Rosen ruckus

Perhaps the oldest trick in street robbery is to “accidentally” stumble hard into someone. The robber creates heavy contact while lightly lifting a wallet from an unsuspecting pocket.

That’s precisely how the great media mosh over the Ann Romney – Hilary Rosen controversy looks to us. Paying attention to the noise and jostle distracts us all from where the money’s at.

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The media ruckus over the Romney-Rosen collision obscured two unassailable truths shared by the vast majority of Americans. First, being a full-time parent is an enormous and worthy undertaking. It’s a job, and then some.

Second, even among women with children under 18 years old, 65 percent have chosen to, or economically must, work outside the home, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Indeed, 40 percent of wives make more than their husbands. Young women increasingly want more responsibility at work the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workplace data by the Families and Work Institute found.

So if what underlies the Romney-Rosen bump are settled truths, where’s the diversion? What got stolen?

The wallet and the watch.

The wallet is the reality of modern-day economics. As others have noted, Ann Romney, no less than Mitt Romney, could hardly be less representative of the face of America. Both she and her husband came into their marriage with considerable wealth.

By contrast, for example, Gallup polling suggests that less than 30 percent of Americans expect to receive any inheritance at all, and more than half believe they won’t have enough to retire. Paid work is their only option.

Our national and state policies meanwhile have done little to allow average Americans to make the Ann Romney choice — and the choice of our own two moms. Single and married moms often work just to secure health care. Stagnant wages make second and third jobs obligatory. Company-funded pensions have nearly evaporated. Day care, meanwhile, is spotty and expensive at best.

The Romneys had four household employees, but many American families are more likely to have four employers. The central question of the campaigns is not: Should women work or should women stay home? That was answered about 30 years ago.

The crucial question is: What do we expect from the private and public sectors to allow parents to raise healthy children?

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CORRECTION: Corrected by: Hadas Gold @ 04/17/2012 06:23 PM
An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a study mentioned in the text; it was the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workplace data by the Families and Work Institute.